Thyssenkrupp must decide on steel JV leadership soon: workers

A logo of Thyssenkrupp AG is pictured at the company's headquarters in Essen, Germany, November 21, 2018. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen

DUISBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp (TKAG.DE) needs to quickly settle who will lead a planned European joint venture with Tata Steel (TISC.NS), a labor leader said on Wednesday.

Thyssenkrupp Chief Executive Guido Kerkhoff said last month that a decision on the leadership of the joint venture would be made before Christmas.

“If not then we’ll make trouble,” Tekin Nasikkol, who heads the works council of Thyssenkrupp’s steel unit, told reporters on Wednesday.

“There is a lot to talk about, but we don’t have anyone to talk to,” Nasikkol said. “I have to strongly condemn this.”

Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel unveiled plans in June to combine their European steel units to form the continent’s second-largest steelmaker after ArcelorMittal (MT.AS).

Nasikkol said the decision on the entity’s leadership should have been made months ago.

The joint venture, to be called Thyssenkrupp Tata Steel, will have a two-tier leadership structure: a management board and a supervisory board, each with six members, on which both companies will be equally represented.

Former Siemens (SIEGn.DE) executive Andreas Goss, who has been heading Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe since 2014, is seen as one of the top candidates to lead the combined entity.